Archie “Bunker” Hodgdon, III of Hardwick collected his first Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior Championship at Barre’s Thunder Road on Saturday following the 20-lap Booth Bros./H.P. Hood feature event for the entry-level division at the 44th Annual Chittenden Milk Bowl. Hodgdon sped to a fourth-place finish in the race and outdistanced Wolcott driver Jamie Davis for the title.

“It’s so great to be a part of Thunder Road and to race in front of all these fans,” Hodgdon said. “My family and my sponsors are the greatest, and hopefully we’ll have some success together next year in the Street Stock division.” Hodgdon drove the #20 Lazy Lions Campground/MH Cleaning Service VW Golf to the championship on the strength of two feature victories and 11 top-five finishes in 19 starts.

Brett Pierce of Montpelier dominated the race for his second victory of the season. He crossed the line in front of Lyndonville’s Dale Bickford and Mark LaFleche of Graniteville. Mike Ducey of Williamstown followed Hodgdon across the finish line. Neal Foster, Davis, Frank Sanborn, Donny Yates, and Leonard Sanborn completed the unofficial top ten finishers in order.

The stations of Radio Vermont will produce weekend-long coverage of the American-Canadian Tour’s 44th Annual Chittenden Milk Bowl stock car event at Barre’s Thunder Road. A live Milk Bowl preview show will run from 5:00-6:00pm on Saturday, Sept. 29, with same-day event coverage beginning at 6:00pm on Sunday, Sept. 30. Both programs will broadcast on WDEV AM 550-Waterbury and WDEV FM 96.1-Warren and FM 96.5 serving Barre.

Ken Squier will host Saturday’s Milk Bowl preview show live from Thunder Road during the 5:00pm hour, recapping Booth Bros./H.P. Hood Qualifying Day. Included in the program will be results from ACT time trials and “Triple 50” qualifying races, as well as results from Thunder Road’s NAPA Tiger Sportsman, Allen Lumber Street Stock, and Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior divisions.

George Commo will anchor same-day coverage of the 44th Annual Chittenden Milk Bowl on Sunday beginning at 6:00pm. Commo will call the action from each of the Milk Bowl’s three 50-lap segments, and will recap the day’s results at the end of the program.

Racing action begins at 1:00pm on Saturday and Sunday at Thunder Road. Adult general admission is $10 for Saturday only, or $25 for a two-day pass. Children 12 and under will be admitted for free on Saturday only, or $5 for the weekend. Thunder Road is located on Quarry Hill in Barre, VT. For more information, call (802) 244-6963, or visit www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com.

Dwayne Lanphear (he's the one on the right) gives Dickens the smooch of her life following his Chittenden Milk Bowl win in 2001

Annie Burke of Harvest Hills Farm in Berlin, VT reports that her lovely Ayrshire cow, Dickens, has won the annual Milk Bowl Beauty Pageant for a record fourth time. Dickens will be standing in Victory Lane at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre on Sunday, Sept. 30 as the winner of the 44th Annual Chittenden Milk Bowl stock car race is presented to her for the traditional winning kiss. Dickens adds the Milk Bowl contest win to her lengthy list of achievements in 2007, which include first-place award ribbons at Vermont fairs in Barton, Rutland, Tunbridge, and Essex.

“Dickens won the ribbon at Essex for production – she produced 20,000 pounds of milk over a period of 305 days,” said Burke. “That’s a high-performance cow. Who else would you want among high-performance racing machines at Thunder Road?”

The 2007 Chittenden Milk Bowl will be Dickens’ fourth tenure as beauty queen for the race. She unseats Ferry Queen, last year’s winner. Dickens has previously received victory smooches from American-Canadian Tour (ACT) competitors Patrick Laperle of Montreal in 2005, Hyde Park, VT native Eric Williams in 2003, and Morrisville’s Dwayne Lanphear in 2001. Lanphear, a dairy farmer himself, planted upon Dickens’ lips the most enthusiastic kiss in Milk Bowl history. Photographs of the scene, scandalous as they were, were sent along the Associated Press wire and appeared throughout major newspapers in cities including Detroit, Toronto, and Los Angeles.